Morality In Everyday Life

This collection highlights research on morality in human development.

Fleming offers an alternative to enlightened liberalism, where moral and political problems are looked at from an objective point of view and a decision made from a distant perspective that is both rational and universally applied to all comparable cases. He instead places importance on the particular, the local, and moral complexity, advocating a return to premodern traditions for a solution to ethical predicaments. In his view, liberalism and postmodernism ignore the fact that human beings by their very nature refuse to live in a world of abstractions where the attachments of friends, neighbors, family, and country make no difference. Fleming believes that a modern type of "casuistry" should be applied to moral conflicts, using examples from history, literature, and religion to explain this moral ecology that refuses to divorce organisms from their interactions with each other and with their environment.

Why do we have children and what do we raise them for? Does the proliferation of depictions of suffering in the media enhance, or endanger, compassion? How do we live and die well in the extended periods of debility which old age now threatens? Why and how should we grieve for the dead? And how should we properly remember other grief and grievances? In addressing such questions, the Christian imagination of human life has been powerfully shaped by the imagination of Christ's life Christs conception, birth, suffering, death, and burial have been subjects of profound attention in Christian thought, just as they are moments of special interest and concern in each and every human life. However, they are also sites of contention and controversy, where what it is to be human is discovered, constructed, and contested. Conception, birth, suffering, burial, and death are occasions, in other words, for profound and continuing questioning regarding the meaning of human life, as controversies to do with IVF, abortion, euthanasia, and the use of bodies and body parts post mortem, indicate. In The Ethics of Everyday Life, Michael Banner argues that moral theology must reconceive its nature and tasks if it is not only to articulate its own account of human being, but also to enter into constructive contention with other accounts. In particular, it must be willing to learn from and engage with social anthropology if it is to offer powerful and plausible portrayals of the moral life and answers to the questions which trouble modernity. Drawing in wide-ranging fashion from social anthropology and from Christian thought and practice from many periods, and influenced especially by his engagement in public policy matters including as a member of the UK's Human Tissue Authority, Banner develops the outlines of an everyday ethics, stretching from before the cradle to after the grave.

“The perfect handbook for understanding what constitutes moral relations with friends, enemies, and one’s own self.” —Booklist In an age when most of us spend more time thinking about what movie we’ll see than about how we want to lead our lives, nothing could be more timely and helpful than Everyday Ethics. In this refreshingly original book, Joshua Halberstam shows us how to develop a moral imagination—and have fun while doing it. Halberstam demolishes the clichés of both religion and psychotherapy and entices us into looking at the small actions that make up the big picture of our character and values. Should we really refrain from making judgments? Should we let our conscience be our guide even if it urges us not to pay our taxes? Halberstam has something intriguing to say about these and many other issues. Witty and entertaining, Everyday Ethics is the moral equivalent of an aerobic dance session, as exhilarating as it is instructive.

This original and illuminating study uses the tools of social psychology and analytic philosophy to examine familiar emotions and behavior patterns and the pressures they exert on personal relationships and social conditions. Topics range from flirtation and gossip to the Holocaust. "Provocative. ... Social psychologists would benefit from reading [this] book, not just for its stimulating ideas but also for a method -- that of analytical philosophy -- that is worth appreciating." --Contemporary Psychology

We all face questions on an almost daily basis related to truth and post-truth, particularly in the political sphere, terrorism, globalization, immigration and asylum, social responsibility, media and social-media ethics, and gender and LGBT issues. So how do you navigate this minefield? Ethics for Life is an accessible introduction to all the key theories and thinkers. It shows the relevance of ethical ideas and theories to everyday life, emphasizing the way our view of ourselves and the societies we live in is shaped by our moral values and the arguments they are based on. With contemporary examples and discussion of current debates including terrorism, genetics and the media, Ethics for Life will help you grasp how ethics applies to life today.

This book critically evaluates the way ordinary people enforce morality in everyday life.

As the title suggests, John Kekes examines two different ethical approaches to the question How should we live? One approach gives a person an ideal theory, or an overriding concern that should guide how everyone, always, everywhere should make ethical decisions. The other promotes instilling virtues in people that will give each person the practical reasoning skills to assess the situation they face and choose ethically. Kekes argues that the ideal theory approach is misguided because it ignores the context of ethical dilemmas and the multiple ethical demands placed upon us by our various roles in life. Looking at popular ideal theories by prominent, modern philosophers Donald Davidson, Thomas Nagel, Christine Korsgaard, Harry Frankfurt, Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Bernard Williams, Kekes shows how each of these theories is inadequate for navigating our daily lives. To demonstrate the flaws of ideal theories Kekes examines real lives, which are lives as they are, not as they should be, and demonstrates how ideal theories give the wrong answers to conflicts within ourselves between our various responsibilities; ways of using our limited time, energy, and money; balancing long-term and short-term satisfactions; controlling our temper; doing too much or not enough; dealing with people we dislike; and so on. Advocating instead for a virtue-based approach to our conflicts, Kekes offers an accessible, engaging book that speaks to the root of ethical inquiry and offers a practical approach to a good life."

Moralism involves the distortion of moral thought, the distortion of reflection and judgement. It is a vice, and one to which many - from the philosopher to the media pundit to the politician - are highly susceptible. This book examines the nature of moralism in specific moral judgements and the ways in which moral philosophy and theories about morality can themselves become skewed by this vice. This book ranges across a wide range of topics: the problem of the demandingness of morality; the conflict between moral and other values; the contrast between the practice of moral philosophy and other modes of moral thought or reflection; moralism in the media; and, moralism in the public discussion of literature and art. This highly original and provocative book will be of interest to students of philosophy, psychology, theology and media, and to anyone who takes a serious interest in contemporary morality.

What does pleasure have to do with morality? What role, if any, should intuition have in the formation of moral theory? If something is ‘simulated’, can it be immoral? This accessible and wide-ranging textbook explores these questions and many more. Key ideas in the fields of normative ethics, metaethics and applied ethics are explained rigorously and systematically, with a vivid writing style that enlivens the topics with energy and wit. Individual theories are discussed in detail in the first part of the book, before these positions are applied to a wide range of contemporary situations including business ethics, sexual ethics, and the acceptability of eating animals. A wealth of real-life examples, set out with depth and care, illuminate the complexities of different ethical approaches while conveying their modern-day relevance. This concise and highly engaging resource is tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies, with a clear and practical layout that includes end-of-chapter summaries, key terms, and common mistakes to avoid. It should also be of practical use for those teaching Philosophy as part of the International Baccalaureate. Ethics for A-Level is of particular value to students and teachers, but Fisher and Dimmock’s precise and scholarly approach will appeal to anyone seeking a rigorous and lively introduction to the challenging subject of ethics. Tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies.